The Hypnotist's Love Story

The Hypnotist's Love Story
by Liane Moriarty

I have a very hard time going into a book store and not making a purchase.  This wouldn't be such a bad affliction if I didn't have a daughter who works in a book store.  Because she works there, I can't just not go there.  You see?

One day when I was running errands with my daughter she needed to stop by work.  Lo & behold, I had to make a purchase so I scanned the shelves to satisfy my need.  I happened upon this book by Liane Moriarty.  I had previously read and loved What Alice Forgot which LM had written so I thought why not?

Liane Moriarty has now joined my list of favorite or "go-to" authors.  Welcome Liane!

I was enjoying this book very much when I went to Goodreads to update my progress.  There I made the mistake of looking at reader reviews.  While many if not most of them were very good, a few gave this book low marks.  What I recall about those marks is people not liking the characters or not finding a climatic event which they felt the book was leading to.

I disagree with both those opinions.

While the book is a love story in which a female stalker quite prominently and sometimes scarily inserts herself, it is ultimately a book about relationships.  It's not a mystery or thriller so don't be looking for someone to be pushed off a cliff, drowned or beaten to death.  As the story is told in two voices, it's easy to see how different one might feel on the inside compared to how she may be viewed from the outside. I found the characters to be very real and dimensional.

The hypnotist is Ellen, a hypnotherapist. She meets and falls in love with Patrick, a widower with a young son.  Patrick dated and lived with Saskia for three years after his wife's death.  Saskia has been stalking Patrick since he broke it off with her three years prior.  An unusual love triangle to say the least. Ellen is more intrigued than frightened by Saskia's obsession with her fiance. She feels her relationship with Patrick is more threatened by his dead wife than his stalker.  Through her voice we see her insecurities and frustrations. Saskia thinks she might actually like Ellen if they had met in other circumstances. Her relationship with Patrick included mothering his son in his earliest years. Through her voice we try to understand her obsession with the man and his son after she is stripped of the roles of partner and mother. 

I think Liane Moriarty did a fine job of exploring relationships fraught with more obstacles than most.  While at one point I thought Ellen and Patrick were definitely on the rocks, she writes a monologue for Patrick that made me want to cheer. 

I give The Hypnotist's Love Story five shots.

I Love A Good List

This blog is stealing a page from another blog I follow.  I'm about to share with you a list from the Listopia section of Goodreads.

Have I mentioned how much I love Goodreads?  It's my couch potato equivalent of going to the bookstore.  Don't get me wrong, nothing could compare with actually being inside a bookstore, but when I can't leave home, Goodreads it is!

Goodreads holds my lists of what I've read and what I want to read.  That "want to read" list grows exponentially faster than the "read" list, but I push on.  Other features that I adore are the "giveaway" books.  There are literally hundreds of books being given away by the authors and publishers.  I've won a few in my time. It's fun. Who can resist a free book?  Then there is the Listopia feature.

You would think that loving to read as much as I do and having hundreds of unread books right here in my home that I would have a "next in line" stack of books that I automatically pick the next one from.  Not so.  I never know what kind of book I'm going to want to read next so I don't even try.  But  Listopia has every kind of list imaginable and it's an awesome way to discover what's next.

It's also a place to find if I measure up.  Okay, I admit it - I have no idea who's standard I am measuring up to or why I even care, but it's kind of fun.  I suspect that this list of 100 Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once is a compilation made by popular vote.  Let's see how I fare.

Again, drawing my inspiration from that other blogger, I will draw a line through the books I have read.  An asterisk indicates it's on my "want to read" list.

 100 Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once (according to Goodreads Listopia)

1. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
2.  1984 by George Orwell
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen*
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
5. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell
7. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (I have no intention of ever reading this)
   
8. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger*
9. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald*
11. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
12. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte*
13. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
14. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (I have no intention of ever reading this)
    
15. Lord of the Flies by William Golding* (This was assigned reading in HS but I don't think I ever finished it.  I want to go back and read it)
    
16. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury*
17. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
18. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
19. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
20. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
21. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
22. The Giver by Lois Lowry
23. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
24. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (I probably have read at least Wonderland)
    
25. Night by Elie Wiesel
26. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
27. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
28. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte*
29. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
30. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell*
31. Holy Bible: King James Version
32. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (I'm sure we read at least parts of this in school)
    
33. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
34. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde*
35. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
36. Brave New World/Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
37. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
38. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (I have no intention of ever reading this)
    
39. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
40. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
41. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
42. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
43. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
44. The Odyssey by Homer
45. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
46. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
47. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
48. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
49. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
50. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
51. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (I'm sure we read at least parts of this in school)
    
52. Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss
53. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck*
54. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery*
55. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
56. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens*
57. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A.Milne (I still have my mother's book given to her in 1927)
    
58. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
59. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
61. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini*
62. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
63. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
64. Life of Pi by Yann Martel*
65. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
66. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
67. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
68. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
69. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne*
70. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
71. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
72. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
73. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
74. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkien (I have no intention of ever reading this)
    
75. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
76. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
77. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
78. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
79. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
80. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
81. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
82. The Little House Collection (1-9) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
83. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
84. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith*
85. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
86. The Stranger by Albert Camus
87. The Book of Mormon: Another testament of Jesus Christ by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
88. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
89. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
90. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
91. The Stand by Stephen King
92. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
93. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
94. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver*
95. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
96. The Quran
97. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
98. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
99. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom*
100. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Now that I've copied the first 100 books of this list onto my blog I see that it was created in 2008. Not that it matters as it appears that it's being added to and voted on still to date.   

36 of 100 is my count of the books I have read.  18 more are already on my list of "to read."  You may have noticed that I marked a couple as NEVER!  This is because I've tried to read Tolkien and just couldn't get into it.  And Les Miserables?  Not a chance.  There are definitely others that I'm sure will never be on my list but those just are so far off the radar for me, I had to note it. 

The Beach Trees

The Beach Trees
by Karen White

The story presented in The Beach Trees is a murder mystery reaching back several generations.  Revealed in two voices, the first Julie, who learns through her current situation that it is possible to build your future on the foundation of the past although it may not seem stable to do so.  The second voice is Aimee who tells her story of the past hoping it will provide clues for mysteries in the present.

I found the story slow to get into.  Too much unnecessary detail for me.  However, the references and descriptions of post Katrina New Orleans and Biloxi was very interesting and enlightening.  Julie didn't understand why so many people would rebuild after such devastation and as one who doesn't live there, I understand that.  But as the stories unfold and we meet more people who chose to stay and rebuild it begins to make sense.

The current day mystery is why Monica, a woman who is deceased when the story begins, left New Orleans, her childhood home, and her family and never made contact with them again.  Therein lies my main criticism of the story.  Because she is dead when the story begins it's unlikely that we'll ever uncover her reason, but when it's finally revealed I found the motivation lacking in believability.

Lastly when we get to the point of tying it all up in a pretty pink mystery solved ribbon I was confused.  I'm still not sure exactly who did what, but it could be because I was reading the end in the wee hours of the morning.  Unfortunately, I don't care enough to go back and re-read it.

The beach trees, for which the title of the book comes, are trees that were killed by hurricane Katrina and yet remain standing.  An artist was commissioned to turn the dead trees into sculptures. Another artist donated his time and talents to carve more trees.  Out of the devastation comes beauty.  You can learn about and see the sculptures here.

I give Beach Trees 3 of 5 shots.  It was good but I'm ready to move on.

Maybe This Time

Maybe This Time
by Jennifer Crusie

Jennifer Crusie is another Chic Lit author that I enjoy.  I saw this book at a Big Lots, or one of those overstock type stores, marked way down and couldn't resist buying it without even reading jacket. It turned out to be a fun read, but certainly not what I was expecting from Crusie.

Maybe This Time is a ghost story.  It is Chic Lit, too, but definitely revolves around the ghosts.

I wasn't expecting that.

For a large sum of money Andie agrees to care for the orphaned charges of her ex-husband.  An arrangement meant to last only 30 days in another part of the state.  She arrives at the crusty old mansion the children live in to be received by a bossy housekeeper and two young children, all of whom seem to want to make her life miserable. Determined to earn the large sum money offered her for caring for the children she wins them over but still has not convinced them to move from the castle.

Twists and turns abound as a disbeliever becomes attuned to her sensitivity of the spirit world.  Some twists are the usual ones you expect pretty much from the beginning of the book and others surprise you.  And there are the ones that make you laugh out loud.

I give Ms. Crusie a rating of 4 of 5 shots for another fun read.

The Chaperone

The Chaperone
Laura Moriarty

Set in the early days of silent movies, the story follows a married woman, Cora Carlisle, who impulsively decides to hire herself out as a chaperone for a quite bold young woman who wants to study dance in New York.  Cora's charge, Louise Brooks, is destined to become a silent film star in just a few years.  While she is a handful and already worldly beyond her years, Cora does her best to keep her in line and out of trouble while at the same time pursuing her own reasons for going to New York City.

I found this to be a well told story uncovering Cora's past as she looked for answers to her heritage in New York.  While trying to control her charge and keep her reputation intact she finds time to uncover the secrets of her own past, although not finding the satisfaction she was hoping for in the answers.

When Cora returns to Kansas, where the two began their journey, the author more or less speeds through the rest of the story.  We learn more about her handsome successful husband and the life they lead and their twin sons' lives as adults.  There are more twists and turns, but I felt like I was reading a somewhat detailed epilogue requiring as many pages as the chaperone story. 

I was interested to discover that Louise Brooks was a real person/silent film star. I don't know how much, if any of her story is accurate but since she did live and perform in silent movies I am labeling this book as historical fiction.  The relationship between Cora and Louise wasn't as big of a part or as significant to the book as I expected it to be based on the title. 

I give The Chaperone 4 of 5 shots as a good story about a woman of those times.

Lost Lake

Lost Lake
by Sarah Addison Allen

Let me start by saying that Sarah Addison Allen is one of my favorite authors.  I discovered her while working at Barnes & Noble in Utah and since reading her first book have always looked forward to everything she's published.

What draws me back to S.A.A. time and again?  Her magic.  Everything she writes has a hint of magic in it.  Not slap you in the face magic, but a subtle magic that I always look forward to.

What will you find at Lost Lake?  An alligator, Cypress knees, a mute French cook, a floozy, a nightly lakeside barbecue, an odd assortment of guests, a lost soul redeemed, a new love sparked, a past love reignited, vengeance, an unexpected opportunity, a new life and second chance.  Or just maybe your own sanity.

Never a major resort, Lost Lake has been run for many years by a couple who's own love story was magical.  But only Eby Prim, one half of that couple, still lives and the resort has been overshadowed by water parks and theme parks. The resort is tired and a bit neglected and the time has come to sell.  The few faithful guests who return to Lost Lake each year decide to make this last summer their best.

Kate Pheris finds herself agreeing to move into her mother-in-law's home a year after her husband has died.  While packing for the move she discovers a letter from her great aunt Eby that was never delivered to her years before. Impulsively she makes the long drive to Lost Lake with her daughter and she decides to stay a while, remembering fondly the summer weeks she spent there when 12 years old.

Sarah Addison Allen reveals the truths and secrets of each guest and employee staying at the resort, intertwining their pasts with their present.  The residents of the small nearby town have their own stories that tie them to Lost Lake and the land it occupies.  And with a little magic Sarah brings all the stories together in a completely engaging way.  Some secrets revealed are heartbreaking and turn out to have been not so secret at all.  But this small town community watches after it's own in the best way it can and makes Kate's impulsive trip her fate, the act that ultimately decides her future.

I give Lost Lake five of five shots.  I continue to adore Sarah and her characters.

A Nantucket Christmas

A Nantucket Christmas
By Nancy Thayer

I received A Nantucket Christmas as a Goodreads win.  It was an enjoyable story and I usually like to read at least one Christmas story during the holidays.  This was my choice.

The story centers around an older couple retired and living in Nantucket.  It's Christmas time, the off season in island terms, when tourists are nowhere to be seen and the town belongs once again to the locals.

It's their first Christmas together and Nicole finds herself "competing" with her new husband's past brought about by his daughter's vision of her parent's once "perfect" marriage, "perfect" life, and her efforts to bring them back together.  I'm not entirely sure I wanted to buy into this premise as the daughter was an adult herself with a husband, child and another baby on the way.  Was it really plausible that she would want to break up her father and his new wife?

As in most romance novels, the story plays out with some drama and  touch & go moments but comes to an expected happy ending.  It was a satisfying holiday tale meeting my need for wintry romance.  I only hope all the trickery by the daughter was due to pregnancy hormones and she is more reasonable in "real life."

I give A Nantucket Christmas four of five shots.  A sweet story.